By Nicholas Kolsin
The UNCP Braves Mens Basketball team (1-3) defeated the Lander Bobcats 93-74 for their first win of the season on Sunday Afternoon.
Bradlee Haskell had a career game scoring a career high 30 points, in addition to 8 threes, also a career high. Elijah Cobb had 14 points, 12 rebounds and 3 steals/blocks in a dominant performance on both ends of the floor. Dallas Gardner had 20 points, 5 rebounds and 2 assists in an all around good performance.
The Braves won the opening tip and Elijah Cobb hit a turnaround free throw line jumper to start things off. On the next possession, JaJuan Carr hit a corner three off of an offensive rebound to go up 5-0 in the first minute.
The Braves were hot from the three point range early has Bradlee Haskell, Joe’l Pettiford, and Carr would hit on three straight possessions to give them the 16-7 lead at the 16 minute mark. Off the bench, Dallas Gardner would come in and hit a tough layup through traffic to go up 18-9. The Bearcats would put up six straight before the 16 minute media timeout to make it 18-15. Another three from the Bearcats tied the game going into the 12 minute media timeout.
Dallas Gardner got a defensive rebound and took it all the way down the court himself for a nice lefty layup to take the Braves lead back 20-18. Teams traded free throws until it was 22-21 when Haskell would hit a corner three to go up by four. After a Lander basket, the Braves would take the two point lead going into the under 8 media timeout.
The Bobcats would come out of the timeout and hit a tough layup to tie the game. Carr would then find Elijah Cobb from three for his second three of the night to go up by three, followed by a bobcats three of their own on the other end making it 28-28. Braves took the lead back on two free throws from Gardner. Bobcats would get an offensive putback to the the game back up. An and-1 layup through contact from Carr took the two point lead back before Landers Dominic Stanford would slam down a monster dunk tying the game back up at 32-32 with just under 4 minutes to play in the first.
Cobb would come out of the timeout and hit Dallas Gardner for a deep three his first of the season. Josh Berenbaum would score his first points of the night on a wide open three on the wing forcing a quick Bobcats timeout. The Bobcats responded with a three and an and-1 conversion to tie the game right back up at 38 with two minutes to go in the half. Haskell would respond with back to back threes, followed by a Que Watkins layup to give the Braves the 46-38 lead the largest of the half. Haskell once again would hit a three, his fifth and the Braves 11th of the half for an 11 point 49-38 lead. A Lander basket, and a Que Watkins three would make it a 52-40 game going into half.
The catalyst for the Braves success in the first half was their 50% shooting from behind the arc compared to Landers 29%. They also lead the rebounding margin 20-15. Despite the game being tied 5 times, the Braves never lost the lead for the entire half.
Lander would come out of half scoring 5 straight cutting the Braves lead to 7, but Gardner would come down again and hit a reverse layup to push it back up to 9. Haskell kept his hot hand into the second half as he would knock down another three to make it 58-47. After Lander went 2-2 from the free throw line, they would come down and hit another three in transition to make it a 6 point game 58-52 at the under 16 media timeout.
Out of the timeout Haskell would go 2-2 from the line to take the 8 point lead. Lander would score 4 straight from the line to cut the Braves lead down to four. Elijah Cobb responded with an easy layup on a nice pass from Berenbaum. After a Lander score, Haskell would get fouled on a jumper making 1 bringing the lead back up to 5. With 13 minutes to go in the half, Haskell would drain his 7th three of the game, his career high making it a 66-60 ballgame. After the Bobcats went 1-2 from the line, Pettiford would get the feed from Haskell to make a nice reverse layup taking a 68-61 lead going into the under 12 timeout.
Lander went 2-2 from the line coming out of the media timeout to cut the lead to 5. Carr would come back and get fouled making 1-2 of his free throws. Dallas Gardner would take a pass in transition taking it to the rack, getting fouled and making the shot and thr free throw to make it a 72-63 game with 11 to play. Berenbaum backed down his defender into the paint and made a turnaround shot to make it 74-66 Braves, followed up by a Bobcats converted and -1 cutting the lead to 5. Berenbaum responded for the Braves again drilling a catch and shoot three going into the 8 minute media timeout of the second half.
Out of the timeout, teams would trade misses and turnovers until the Gardner would break the scoring drought with 5:15 to play in the game with a tough two in transition. Haskell would hit back to back threes to make it a 85-69 game, his 30th point of the game going into the under 4 timeout on a 11-0 run. Cobb would put the bow on the game with a strong alley oop finish.
The Braves would hold on to win 93-74 in dominant fasion. Next, they will play Fayetteville State in Fayetteville on Wednesday Nov. 13.